This album belongs on tape, on a bright orange tape.
I can’t stop listening to it.
I heard ‘Tears’ first and the lyric, ‘We are strangers, dreaming the same dream’ blew me away; the romantic deliverance, over time eroded by dissolution and I’m still not sure I’ve got the story right. There are stories in these tracks which are not obvious at first. Emotions emerge and come and go. This album lets you be emotional.
I raved at the euphoric synthesizer, which if you know me, you’ll know I’m a sucker for. Over and over. And behind these gloriously commanding, edgy melodies and thrusting drums are vivid lyrics. ‘Fuck War and Everything About It’ is the greatest song of the 21st century.
ManMachine’s vocals have a fascinating intensity, delivered with a faultless freedom and a kind of distorted silveryness that makes them magical. This album puts me in all the right places, the train journey rushing by in deep winter, the early 80s gig in an industrial venue where people, lost, come together; the darkest times, but I’m totally alright.
ManMachine – Now I’m Immortal LP – ltd, hand-stamped numbered tape release LC005 by Larry Crywater